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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Tuesday, September 08, 2015

The
controversial badger cull in England is underway for the first time in
Dorset and has restarted for the third year in Gloucestershire and
Somerset, the government has confirmed.

The cull,
intended to curb tuberculosis in cattle, aims to kill 1,000-2,000
badgers over six weeks. Over 32,000 TB-infected cattle were slaughtered
in 2014 and farmers welcomed the cull.

But previous
badger culls have failed to meet targets, raising the risk that culling
could actually increase TB infections in cattle as setts are disrupted
and badgers roam more widely.

On Wednesday, senior scientists, including one appointed by the government to independently assess the cull, called for an end to the policy. The independent panel, now disbanded, found earlier culls were neither effective nor humane.

Claire Bass,
of the Humane Society International/UK said the re-start of the cull
was devastating news: “For a third year running these supposedly
protected animals will be subjected to a cruel and pointless death,
scapegoats of the government’s failed cattle TB policy. We will continue
to campaign to end this inhumane and unscientific massacre.”

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject.

There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in.

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.

What has Corinna's column of Fortean bird news got to do with cryptozoology?Well, everything, actually!

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out-of-place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in.

What a day! Jessica and I have been flat out and have achieved a lot. I
wish that I could actually tell you half of what we did, but I can't. However, I
can tell you that Animals & Men #54 is now finished and once Corinna has
proofread it will be available to read for free online...

The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#146) is available to read at
www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It
has Dana Schechter from Bee and Flower on the front cover together with an
interview with her inside, Doug looks at ELP, Lee dances with The Wombats, Jon
muses about Fruits de Mer Records and reviews a book about Ringo Starr, John
looks at the legacy of the English Underground on YouTube including music by
John Martyn and the Pink Fairies. Thom waxes all poetical like, whilst the
legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column. And there is a radio show from
M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the second of four Strange Harvest
radio specials from the folk wot bring you Strange Fruit, and there is the
latest episode of Canterbury Sans Frontières featuring Gong and Matching Mole.
There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and water
opossums with something to lose (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials
planning to pray to St Anthony of Padua for an intercession, but I got carried
away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the
best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!

All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer.
If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo
Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is
power chaps, we have to share it!

* The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to
write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and
want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at
gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as
widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as
it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the
fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it
raining. See you tomorrow...

* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine
(mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But
it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also
do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about
it at this link:
www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit…

* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to
things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not
responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest
guv!

* Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an
old hippy of 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song
by Frank Zappa, and a small kitten totally coincidentally named after one of the
Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, puts it all together from a converted
potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with
various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his
lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and
a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the infantile
orange cat, and the adventurous kitten?

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